The Sex/Internet Poll
I feel like this poll about giving up sex versus giving up the internet is being widely misrepresented by headlines like “Survey: Many would take Internet over sex.” Look specifically at what the survey asked (emphasis added):
Nearly half of the women questioned by Harris Interactive said they’d be willing to forgo sex for two weeks, rather than give up their Internet access, according to a study released Monday by Intel, which commissioned the survey.
While 46 percent of the women surveyed were willing to engage in abstinence versus losing their Internet, only 30 percent of the men surveyed were willing to do likewise.
I think that if you’re taking the question seriously, the time-limited nature of the give-up makes a big difference. No sex for two weeks is the sort of thing that happens all the time to single people, or else it’s a long business trip or what have you. Perhaps not so fun, but in practice something everyone can deal with. If a demon offered you this choice and you picked the sex and then had to explain to your boss why you couldn’t check email or do any research for the next two weeks, I think you’d get fired — “I wanted to have more sex” isn’t usually considered a good reason to not do your job. Whereas if you picked the internet and the had to explain to your partner that you couldn’t have sex for the next two weeks in order to avoid getting fired, I think your main problem would be getting him or her to believe your wildly implausible story.
Things look different if you’re talking about a lifetime decision. In that case, I think you need to tell your boss that you’re quitting and go look for a job that doesn’t require internet use. Too bad for those of us who have no marketable skills outside the blogging industry, but these things happen.
41 Responses to “The Sex/Internet Poll”
Register
RSSLogin
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog RollAbout Matt YglesiasContact Me
Donate
December 16th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
No sex for two weeks is the sort of thing that happens all the time to single people
But married people NEVER go two weeks without having sex! No sir.
December 16th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
““I wanted to have more sex” isn’t usually considered a good reason to not do your job.”
seems like an excellent reason, if you ask me. can you think of any better reasons not to do your job?
December 16th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
nope, never.
that’d be like going two weeks without pork chops.
December 16th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
A disturbingly high percentage of male Internet users are introverted Beta nerds who don’t get any sex in the first place.
December 16th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
BREAKING: Headlines misrepresent articles.
December 16th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
I want to trade lives with cleek. I’m working on multi-week shortages in both the sex and pork chops departments.
December 16th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Married people and bloggers respond: But we alreay forego sex!
December 16th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
nah, greg, you don’t want to be cleek.
and you *really* don’t want to be his pork chops.
just saying.
December 16th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
my pork chops bring the girls to the yard.
December 16th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
I’m way too busy in Grad school to even contemplate dating or sex. Its a non-issue, but damn it, you will never take my internet away.
Of course, I was a big manwhore for years so maybe I’m still running of the sexual equivalent of stored fat.
December 16th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
You could be a reindeer shepherd in Finland. Lots of free time for sex* in that job.
* – with your significant other, not the reindeer
December 16th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
These are seperate things?
December 16th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
What about people who get their sex through the Internet? That’s like asking them to decide between chewing and swallowing. Shouldn’t have mentioned swallowing here. Sorry.
December 16th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Wait… you mean there’s a way to have sex without the internet?
December 16th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
If it came down to that, MattY would have to learn how to snail mail his blog to us. And his spelling is so bad….
December 16th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Free pron on the interwebz… OR… Disease from a bar skank that makes your dick look like a foot
The interwebz wins again!
December 16th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
No sex for two weeks is the sort of thing that happens all the time to single people, or else it’s a long business trip or what have you.
I’ve never gone on a long business trip without sex….What?…. Oh, nothing, dear. I’m just checking e-mails. Yes, I know the trash has to go out.
December 16th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
You know, the widespread attention online to a silly study is making the idea of giving up the Internet for sex sound better and better.
December 16th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Let’s not forget that this survey about how much people value the internet was conducted OVER THE INTERNET. The large portion of the population who spend very little time on the internet were unlikely to be sampled, and those who do not have internet access were fully excluded from the study.
I can save everyone some time by conducting similar studies in my head…
* People who were found watching Colbert, tend to like Colbert more than Hannity.
* Individuals approached while attending the Republican convention prefer Republicans to Democrats.
* People identified outside a Jewish community center strongly prefer brisket to bacon.
* People found on the internet really like using the internet.
December 16th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
The large portion of the population who spend very little time on the internet were unlikely to be sampled, and those who do not have internet access were fully excluded from the study.
Why would you want to include them in the study? The ideal subject would be someone who has about equal non-zero internet use and sex, however you want to quantify them. If you’re some sort of anti-internet Luddite, of course you’d give up the internet in a heartbeat since you’re not actually giving up anything, so your opinion would be completely uninformative. It would be like asking a teetotaler whether he’d rather go beerless or sexless for two weeks. The study doesn’t exclude the opposite end of the spectrum (high internet-low/no sex contingent), though. If that’s a large enough segment of the polled population, then the male number would likely be lower for internet-using Casanovas (assuming most sexless internet dorks are male).
December 16th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
BREAKING: Headlines misrepresent articles.
What would the article under this headline say?
December 16th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
“These things happen…”
What? Demons?
December 16th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
BREAKING: Headlines misrepresent articles.
What would the article under this headline say?
It would probably be an article about how there aren’t any WMD’s in Iraq.
December 17th, 2008 at 3:56 am
Funnient comment thread this month….
Maybe the undercurrent to the story is that some people are still thinking of the internet as a new fangled gizmo that faddish people are really getting excited about and addicted to. So we’re finding way to be amazed at how many people need their internet. But in the real world it’s a standard part of life and people use it for all kinds of boring mundane things. If the survey were about forgoing drinking milk, or driving, or sleeping in a bed rather than on the floor, then the survey would be read as being about sex rather than those other everyday things.
There’s also this pop culture inspired idea, that Yglesias alludes to, that most people have sex regularly and can always have it regularly and so “giving it up” or not having it would only occur through some bizarre act of self-denial. Jokes about married people aside, it’s been shown that single adults not living with a partner have less sex than married people. About half as much and less consistently.
December 17th, 2008 at 6:14 am
The suggestion that “No sex for two weeks is the sort of thing that happens all the time to single people” could only be written by somebody who is not married. A more accurate statement would be: “No sex for two weeks is the sort of thing that happens all the time to people.”
March 1st, 2009 at 10:10 pm
cialis
Very interesting site. Hope it will always be alive!
March 11th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Excellent site. It was pleasant to me.
March 22nd, 2009 at 7:16 am
tramadol
It is the coolest site,keep so!
April 3rd, 2009 at 5:31 am
Great site. Good info
cheap brand pfizer viagra
April 14th, 2009 at 10:46 am
Thanks for the review!
viagra